Last week Stephan vd Krommenacker, Michiel van Herten and I, as well as many others tried our luck at Hyeres, Orange and Istres. We had a fair bit of rain last Tuesday (you probably seen the news with the floods in nearby Draguignan) but yesterday (Wednesday 16-jun) the forecast for Istres was slightly better so we decided to make another attempt to have a look at this airbase.
The day before we were send away by the Gendarme at spot 3, so we decided not go through the fence by car, but took a little hike to the basefence. We had to stay out of sight though, otherwise we would run into the same situation as Tuesday, see this video:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8nr7d7sIgg[/youtube]
Unfortunately the wind still came from the north so we were stuck at the southside of the base. Walking to the fence we still found ourselves at the centerline, which lead to godawful pictures like this. In the afternoon it should be a bit better because you can walk away from the centerline to the west but the aircraft will still be high.
Luckily for us the wind changed to south (as was expected in the weather forecast) so we moved to spot 5 at the northern approach. This took us a bout an hour drive from spot 3. The exit as described at the airfield guide to reach spot 5 is now fenced off so you need to come in from about 5 kom north of te base. I have to find the coordinates for this spot to come in, but I will let you know as soon as possible.
Here are the pictures taken the rest of the day. Absolutely worthwhile, but you need to be lucky with the wind here !
Spot 5 is not perfect, the aircraft are still a bit high, but at least the Gendarme let us stay here. They checked our passports and then left.
hello Frank! very nice!
